Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary — August 22

The feast of the Queen­ship of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary was insti­tuted by Pope Pius XII in the encycli­cal “Ad Coeli Regi­nam” on Octo­ber 11, 1954. The pur­pose of the feast was “so that all may rec­og­nize more clearly and ven­er­ate more devoutly the mer­ci­ful and mater­nal sway of the Mother of God. We are con­vinced that this feast will help to pre­serve, strengthen and pro­long that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recur­ring crises” (Ad Coeli Reginam).

The Queen­ship of Mary can be traced back to the Bible. At Annun­ci­a­tion, Archangel Gabriel tells Mary that her Son will be King and rule over the house of David for­ever.As Jesus is the King, so Mary, his mother would be a Queen:

31 And now, you will con­ceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ances­tor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob for­ever, and of his king­dom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31–33

Mary’s Queen­ship is there­fore a share in the King­ship of Jesus. Mary is a Queen by divine rela­tion­ship as Mother of GOD, but she is sub­or­di­nate to HIM. Dur­ing the vis­i­ta­tion, her cousin, Eliz­a­beth addressed Mary with great rev­er­ence as “the Mother of My Lord”:

41 When Eliz­a­beth heard Mary’s greet­ing, the child leaped in her womb. And Eliz­a­beth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this hap­pened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? Luke 1:41–43

As far back as the fourth cen­tury, St. Ephrem addressed the Blessed Vir­gin Mary as “Queen” and “Lady.” In time, the Church Fathers and Doc­tors con­tin­ued with the use of this title to address Mary. Many songs and hymns of the 11th to 13th cen­turies would address Mary as Queen — “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Queen of Heaven. “In many ancient writ­ings Mary was always given the title “Queen” or “Queen Mother.” Many ancient arts and icons depict the Blessed Mother as Queen, with crown. At Assump­tion, Mary was assumed to heaven and crowned Queen of Heaven and earth.

9. Hence it is not sur­pris­ing that the early writ­ers of the Church called Mary “the Mother of the King” and “the Mother of the Lord,” bas­ing their stand on the words of St. Gabriel the archangel, who fore­told that the Son of Mary would reign forever,[8] and on the words of Eliz­a­beth who greeted her with rev­er­ence and called her “the Mother of my Lord.“[9] Thereby they clearly sig­ni­fied that she derived a cer­tain emi­nence and exalted sta­tion from the royal dig­nity of her Son.“Ad Caeli Regi­nam (On Pro­claim­ing The Queen­ship Of Mary)by Pope Pius XII

10. So it is that St. Ephrem, burn­ing with poetic inspi­ra­tion, rep­re­sents her as speak­ing in this way: “Let Heaven sus­tain me in its embrace, because I am hon­ored above it. For heaven was not Thy mother, but Thou hast made it Thy throne. How much more hon­or­able and ven­er­a­ble than the throne of a king is her mother.“[10] And in another place he thus prays to her: “… Majes­tic and Heav­enly Maid, Lady, Queen, pro­tect and keep me under your wing lest Satan the sower of destruc­tion glory over me, lest my wicked foe be vic­to­ri­ous against me.“[11]

11. St. Gre­gory Nazianzen calls Mary “the Mother of the King of the uni­verse,” and the “Vir­gin Mother who brought forth the King of the whole world,“[12] while Pru­den­tius asserts that the Mother mar­vels “that she has brought forth God as man, and even as Supreme King.“[13]Ad Caeli Regi­nam (On Pro­claim­ing The Queen­ship Of Mary)by Pope Pius XII

Some of the rea­sons given by Pope Pius XII as to why Mary deserves the title of Queen­ship include the fact that She is the Mother of GOD. In Greek, The Vir­gin Mary is given the high­est title ever received by a human being, Theotokos, “The Bearer of GOD”. The Vir­gin Mary has inter­ces­sory power before the Father and Son. Mary, as the new Eve, is closely asso­ci­ated with Christ in his redemp­tive work. Apart from Jesus, Mary has the “high­est degree of excel­lence and per­fec­tion” and She is also given enor­mous power in the dis­tri­b­u­tion of many graces. Mary is the Co-Redemptrix, Medi­a­trix and Advocate.

42. Besides, the Blessed Vir­gin pos­sessed, after Christ, not only the high­est degree of excel­lence and per­fec­tion, but also a share in that influ­ence by which He, her Son and our Redeemer, is rightly said to reign over the minds and wills of men. For if through His Human­ity the divine Word per­forms mir­a­cles and gives graces, if He uses His Sacra­ments and Saints as instru­ments for the sal­va­tion of men, why should He not make use of the role and work of His most holy Mother in impart­ing to us the fruits of redemp­tion? “With a heart that is truly a mother’s,” to quote again Our Pre­de­ces­sor of immor­tal mem­ory, Pius IX, “does she approach the prob­lem of our sal­va­tion, and is solic­i­tous for the whole human race; made Queen of heaven and earth by the Lord, exalted above all choirs of angels and saints, and stand­ing at the right hand of her only a Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she inter­cedes pow­er­fully for us with a mother’s prayers, obtains what she seeks, and can­not be refused.“[56] On this point another of Our Pre­de­ces­sors of happy mem­ory, Leo XIII, has said that an “almost immea­sur­able” power has been given Mary in the dis­tri­b­u­tion of graces;[57] St. Pius X adds that she fills this office “as by the right of a mother.“[58](Ad Coeli Reginam).

We need to rec­og­nize the Queen­ship of Mary and con­se­crate our­selves and our fam­i­lies to her Immac­u­late Heart. Please click on the link below for con­se­cra­tion to the Immac­u­late Heart:

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“Do not let any­thing afflict you, and do not be afraid of any ill­ness or acci­dent or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and pro­tec­tion?”
These mer­ci­ful words spo­ken by our Lady to Juan Diego also applies to us today.

Infant Jesus of Prague,
Pray for Us

Michael, Michael, of the morn­ing, Fresh chord of Heaven adorn­ing, Keep me safe today And in time of temp­ta­tion, Drive the devil away

Glo­ri­ous St. Michael, the Archangel, Pray for Us”

“Oh, how glo­ri­ous it is, how holy and great, to have a Father in heaven!” St. Fran­cis of Assisi

.
St Jude Thad­deus, Pray for Us

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heav­ens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”
Saint Thérèse de Lisieux

Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is use­less. God is mer­ci­ful and will hear your prayers. St. Padre Pio